Lennie's Birthday Present
by Animaltalker
Summary: Ed gives Lennie something he's always wanted but there's a problem
1. Default Chapter

"Ssh!" Ed admonished the wrapped box as he headed into the squad room for the party. 

Everyone was gathered around his partner and a large sheet cake with 2 numeral candles, which were nowhere near Lennie's true age. Lennie closed his eyes, supposedly making a wish and then blew out the candles. Anita handed him a knife and he handed it ME Rodgers saying she had to be better at cutting things up than he was, which of course got a laugh. 

Just then Lennie spotted Ed. 

"Hey you, aren't you going to come to my birthday party?" Lennie asked with a big smile. 

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I was just bringing your present," Ed answered as he put the wriggling box in Lennie's lap. 

Just as Ed set the box down, a bark could be heard from inside the box. 

"What the?" Lennie asked and quickly opened the box. Inside along with some puppy food and a dog dish and a now tipped over water bowl was the cutest mass of fur known to mankind. It was some sort of mix breed puppy; he was mostly white with some brown spots. The puppy was probably mostly terrier, though he might have some beagle or other small hound mixed in. He was probably about 4 months old and he seemed to be all tongue and waggy tail. He stood up on his hind feet and licked Lennie's face. Lennie scratched him behind his ears and withstood the impromptu bathing. 

Lennie pulled the little dog out of the box and let the box fall to the floor. Ed pulled a leash out of his pocket and clipped it to the dog's collar threading it through the fingers of one of Lennie's big hands that were now firmly clasped around the dog. 

"Do the two of them know each other or do all dogs take to him like this?" Anita Van Buren asked Ed with a little laugh. 

"Well, as long as I've worked with Lennie I've noticed all animals like him and he likes all animals, but this one's special. Remember that case Lennie and I caught at the beginning of the week?" Ed asked. 

"The vehicular homicide?" Anita asked and Ed nodded. 

"Is this our surviving witness?" Anita asked. 

"Yeah, and there wasn't a scratch on the little guy, but he was so scared and the only one he'd let get close was Lennie. We had to turn him over to Animal Control, about broke both their hearts, so I figured what the heck, I'd get him for Lennie for his birthday. I paid for all his shots and his license and when he's old enough for the necessary snip snip, you know," Ed said. 

Everyone in the squad was gathered around Lennie to see and pet his new dog. 

"What are you going to name him, Lennie?" Ana Cordova asked. 

"Nothing," Lennie said sadly, and with a sigh he bent to put the puppy back in the box. 

He turned dejectedly but resolutely to Ed. 

"Hey pal, it was a great idea, but I can't keep him," Lennie said. God, why did his voice sound like his dad's just now? 

"Why not?" Ed asked mystified. 

"My apartment building doesn't allow any pets," Lennie answered miserably as his puppy finally managed to jump out of the box and make its way to Lennie's side. 

Lennie leaned down and picked the puppy up. 

"No, little guy I can't keep you," Lennie said and then he quickly retreated to Lt. Van Buren's office with the puppy in his arms. 

The detectives and Lieutenant Van Buren stood together out in the squad room stunned, each sure they'd just seen one of the most cynical, hard boiled NYPD detectives with tears in his eyes because he couldn't keep a sweet little puppy. 

"I think I screwed up," Ed said. 

"I know you did," Anita said. 

"Guess I better try to fix it," Ed said and started to move towards Van Buren's office. 

"No, I'll go fix that part of the problem, you go talk to Lennie's land lord. Remind him how handy it is to have a cop living on the premises," Anita looked at the other detectives. 

"The rest of you start working on plan B," she said. 

"Which is?" Ana Cordova asked. 

"Finding Lennie a new apartment in case Ed's not successful. Remember it has to be one he can afford that does allow pets," Anita said as though it were an obvious answer. 

Lennie looked up when he heard the Lieutenant's door open. He'd been sitting in the chair in front of her desk petting his puppy, sniffling like a little boy. That seemed fairly appropriate because he was remembering another time he'd had to give up a puppy, "his" puppy. He'd always loved animals and had an affinity for them, but as a kid with working class parents living in an apartment, he could never have a pet, but there'd been this one time he'd "forgotten" the rules and brought home a free puppy. He remembered his Dad being so angry with him he'd actually beaten him. His Dad never did that. He wasn't like the other kids' parents who were constantly beating their kids, his Dad lectured him and maybe once in a while he took the strap to him, but he'd never before just out and out beat him. And Lennie never knew what became of his puppy, which really haunted him as a kid. 

"Sorry," Lennie started to apologize. 

"It's OK," Anita said. 

"Mind if I ask you something?" 

"I guess not, seeing how this is your office I invaded," Lennie said with a ghost of his usual humor. 

"You really seem to like animals, have you ever had a pet?" she asked gently. 

Lennie shook his head, and continued to pet his puppy that by this time was falling asleep. 

"I've pretty much always lived in apartments, except when I was married, and neither of my wives wanted to have pets. I always thought that pets would have been good for my girls though," Lennie answered. 

"Well I think this dog would be good for you," Anita said as she too petted Lennie's puppy. 

"I want you to find a way to keep him, so I've got the squad working on trying to help you do just that," she added. 

Lennie's head shot up, and he looked into her eyes to see if she was telling the truth. 

"Thank you," Lennie said simply. 

"Well, if you really want to thank me," she started. 

"Anything," Lennie interrupted her with a promise. 

"Let me name him?" she asked. 

"OK," Lennie shrugged. 

Anita thought about it for a while. 

"How about we call him Rookie?" she asked. 

"Rookie it is," Lennie said with a smile. 


	2. Looking for new digs

Fortunately it was a pretty quiet day and while most of the squad worked on Lennie's problem, he worked the phones on a case he and Ed had caught earlier in the week in between playing with Rookie and teaching him tricks. 

"Hey watch this, Lieu," Lennie said as Van Buren came out of her office. 

"Rookie," Lennie said and the puppy immediately looked at Lennie and wagged his tail. 

"Sit, Rookie," the puppy immediately sat down. 

"Good boy, now settle," the puppy slide his front paws out in front of him and came to a rest and looked expectantly at Lennie. 

"He hates this next one but I think it's important. Stay Rookie," Lennie said and crossed the squad room and sat in a chair. Rookie stayed where he was, but he started whining. 

"Just a little bit longer, boy," Lennie said and Rookie stopped whining and thumped his tail. 

"OK, Come here Rookie," Lennie said and the puppy ran straight to Lennie. 

Lennie opened his arms and said, "Up pup," and Rookie leapt up into his arms and started licking his face. "Stop it Rookie," Lennie said with a laugh as he tried to get his face out of the range of the puppy's tongue. 

"You taught him all that just today?" Anita asked as she walked over to where Lennie and Rookie were and started scratching Rookie behind his ears. 

"Well, he already knew sit and he's really bright," Lennie answered looking up at Anita. 

Rookie jumped off Lennie's lap and headed for the stairs. 

"Hey Rookie, where you going?" Lennie said and started after his wayward puppy with Lt. Van Buren trailing behind. They found Rookie half way up the stairs trying to amuse a very down looking Ed Green. 

"Hey Lieu, look what Rookie found, my lazy partner, who leaves me to do all the work on my birthday," Lennie teased. 

"Yeah, well while you were working I was trying to do the impossible, talk to that curmudgeon of a landlord of yours. Man, I'd have an easier time renting from a white supremacist than you'd have getting this guy to change your lease. I hope the rest of the gang had a better time of it," Ed said as he picked Rookie up and slowly came down the stairs. Rookie wriggled and whined, so Ed put him down and Rookie made a beeline for Van Buren's open office door. 

"Oops, I better go see what he's up to," Lennie said. 

"Rookie, come," Lennie said with a laugh, unable to believe his puppy could get into trouble so quickly. Rookie obediently came to Lennie clutching a fork in his mouth. He also had telltale signs of birthday cake around his mouth. 

Lennie took the handle of the fork but Rookie didn't want to let go. The tenacious little puppy hung on so tightly to the other end of the fork that Lennie actually picked him up off his feet. 

"Lennie put him down! You're gonna hurt his mouth," Anita said through her laughter. 

Lennie was laughing so hard he had to sit down on the floor of the squad room and just gather Rookie onto his lap. 

"You little scamp, let go of the God damn fork!" Lennie said and finally managed to sort of thread the fork through Rookie's mouth and then handed the slightly mangled utensil to Anita, giving her an apologetic expression. 

"Definitely part terrier," Anita said with a laugh. 

"Man, you better make sure you keep your shoes, your clothes and especially your holster out of this little guy's way," Ed commented. 

Before Lennie could comment, Ana Cordova came in; she thought Lennie looked incredibly cute sitting on the floor with the puppy. She'd found a nice apartment but she knew it was about $100 more a month than what Lennie paid now. Although she didn't want to admit how she knew that - she'd pulled Lennie's bank records before she headed out to look for apartments so she had an idea how much he paid for rent. 

"Hi, are we having a party on the floor?" Ana asked. 

"Might have to, I'm not sure if I can get up with Rookie on my lap," Lennie answered. 

"Well, let me give you a hand," Ana said and picked up Rookie. Lennie, who had literally been expecting a hand up, rolled his eyes at Ana and got up on his own power, now that he was free of Rookie. The puppy squirmed and whimpered just as he'd done when Ed had held him. It seemed that Rookie didn't trust anyone to hold him but Lennie. 

"So Cordova, did you have any luck?" Ed asked. 

"Well, that depends," Ana said hesitantly. 

"On what Ana?" Anita asked. 

"On whether Lennie can afford an extra $100 a month," Ana answered. 

Ed, Ana and Anita all looked at Lennie expectantly and even Rookie seemed to sense something was up. 

"Yeah, I think I swing that, now that Gloria's remarried, I'm off the hook for her alimony payment so that frees up quite a bit of cash each month. So yeah, I think I can swing that," Lennie answered. 

"Great, here's the information on the place. You should get over there quick though, because I don't think the vacancy will last long," Ana said giving Lennie a brochure. 

"Shoo, shoo," Anita Van Buren said with a laugh, then added, "I'll just put you down for some personal time, it's not like you don't have a ton of it saved up." 

Lennie grinned and stopped to pick up a few of Rookie's essentials. "Come on buddy we gotta go check on our new digs," Lennie told the pup. 

Lennie couldn't believe what a fantastic job Anna had done in finding an apartment. The place she'd found was a two bedroom instead of the one bedroom he presently had, which meant he could actually have his daughter and the grandkid up to visit. The complex also had one of those recreation centers and it had a pool table in it. The apartment was near a gym that had an indoor pool; Lennie not only liked to swim but also as bad as his ankle and knees were getting, swimming was about the only aerobic workout he could stand. There was a nice park nearby for Rookie and him to go walking in too and the place was closer to the stationhouse and really close to a subway line. 

Lennie signed a lease on the vacant apartment immediately and said he'd move in as soon as they'd let him, they said he could move in the day after tomorrow. Lennie stopped at a pet store and bought some things for Rookie, chew toys, treats, poop bags, and a crate. Lennie hated to crate him, but with a puppy like Rookie he knew they'd probably be better friends if he stayed in a crate while he was at work. All the experts said dogs didn't mind it because to them a crate was like a den. He hoped they were right. 

It was only as Lennie was headed back to his old place that he started to worry about what he'd do with it. Just as he put the key in the door the perfect solution dawned on him. His nephew Ken had just broken up with his live-in girlfriend and since Ken was the one living in, he no longer had a place to live and was temporarily back at his Mom and Dad's. Which was of course driving the poor kid bananas. So Lennie figured he'd offer to sublet the apartment to Ken which would help him and his nephew out at the same time, and probably piss his brother Bernie off as an added bonus. 

Lennie was determined to establish a schedule with Rookie and the puppy seemed to understand. He got up and took him for a walk in the park and he thought it would be just a real short jaunt, but he kept getting stopped by all the female joggers who wanted to ooh and aah over how cute his puppy was. He couldn't believe it but Rookie was genuine chic bait, several of the ladies gave him their numbers! When he got back to the apartment he put the ladies' numbers on his bulletin board, then took a quick shower and dressed, and then he stuffed some treats in a Kong and put Rookie in his crate with the chew toy. 

"OK Rookie, Dad'll come back to check on you at lunch time. You be a good boy and chew on you're toy for a while and then take a big nap, OK?" Lennie said to Rookie as he dropped his .38 into his holster in preparation to leave. Rookie barked and whined and Lennie felt incredibly guilty about leaving the puppy alone. 


End file.
